When I stepped out onto my hotel’s porch in Shanghai, I was surprised to see excited local college kids wearing Dangal caps and waiting for the Indian superstar. Aamir Khan was staying at the same hotel as I was at The Portman Ritz Carlton at Nanjing Road, Shanghai.
An excited lady in her 30’s stood in the lobby. “You’re from India!? I love Aamir Khan!” Julie Dong, who works for an Internet company, was only too happy to let me in on why she loves Mr Perfectionist. “Yesterday I was really lucky to have a phone interview with Aamir Khan. That’ll be the most cherished moment of my life. He is so great, so talented, so helpful, and cares about others.”
She went on to explain that Indian movies haven’t been popular in China. Dong feels the reasons are many – prejudice against India, less choices, limited ways to know Indian cinema, and language barrier.
A few of these reasons are justified. In China, its government restricts the number of foreign films being released to just 34 a year. Ninety percent of these are Hollywood productions. Non-Hollywood releases make up just about 1.5 percent of the Chinese film market. Not only that, giant universal and social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Gmail as well as publications like BBC, Time, Economist, etc, remain largely blocked in China. So a plethora of information remains inevitably unreachable for the public.
Dong calls Aamir Khan a ‘legend’ whose work like 3 Idiots, PK, and Satyamev Jayatey, reflects the ‘real’ India and are inspiring people in China. Dong likes Khan’s “easy, acceptable and pleasing way to reflect social issues.”
Dong’s friend, Vivien Guo, 40, also loves Aamir’s movies and feels inspired by them. “Thanks to Aamir Khan and his films, I started thinking about how to be a better mother,” confesses Guo.
Ali, Xu, 30, works for a German company in Shanghai, saw 3 Idiots when it released in China. After that he searched for all his movies and watched a few, including Lagaan. Xu likes Khan’s movies because they are very emotional. They make him laugh and cry at the same time. “He shows humanity and Indian social issues in a humourous way,” says Xu.
Xu found Aamir “a brave man” who “tried his best to pursue the truth even when he encountered pressures.”
“From a man's opinion”, says Xu, “Aamir inspires me to pursue my dream and persist with principle. I don't care about what others think or talk.”
Dong started watching Aamir Khan’s movies after Ghajni. Last Saturday, she saw Dangal. “161 minutes, but I never found it long. In fact, I enjoyed every minute of it. His movies are much better than ours.” She feels that she got two important things from the movie. Firstly, it gave her a glimpse into Indian society, which made her passionate about India. She admits she never liked India before Aamir’s movies. Secondly, it taught her about family relationships, education and life.
Dong also admits that a lot of things she learnt perturbed her. After becoming an Aamir fan, she began to search information about India – the situation of sports, inequalities in gender, the plight of women, child marriage and relationships between parents and children in the country. “I’m still very shocked and want to know why in India, girls are allowed to get married so early? Why are daughters so obedient to their father? Why do Indians like sons more than daughters?” Dong questions.
She goes on to explain,“Everything in China is different. For example, in most of the families, children are the kings. They don’t listen to parents too much. Families living in cities, women are more powerful at home.” Dong believes that Aamir has opened a window for her into his country and now she can’t wait to visit Mumbai next month. She also hopes to get a chance to meet her favourite actor.
Aamir was in China to promote Dangal. He seems a befitting ambassador for India-China relations. In a country where so much is censored, it is interesting to see how an Indian actor has made his way into the hearts of the people and made them empathic towards Indians, who they otherwise may not have known much about. This is ‘soft power’ success at its best!
(Vasudha Sahgal is passionate about travel, food and words. She has contributed to various publications like The Tribune and Huffington Post. She had a stint in advertising as a trainee copywriter with Ogilvy and Mather. She’s working on some stories, one of which is available on kindle as“Life of Three”. Find her rambling at @vasudha1)
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